Handsome and the Hideous

Chapter 3

A week had passed since Cody moved in. For the most part, we stayed out of each other's way. Cody didn't really seem to care for me. It wasn't that he didn't like me, but he tended to stay in his room and I stayed in mine, so there was no need for us to interact. But, during our brief interactions, I was glad to notice Cody didn't treat me differently. He treated me with respect and from years of experience of having people look down on me and treat me like scum, I was thankful.

Suddenly, there was a knock on my bedroom door. I put down the book I was reading on my bed and told Cody to come in. Cody did and he looked stressed, which made my eyes soften. My dad gave Cody a lot of paperwork. It was more than necessary, but I knew I couldn't talk to my dad about it.

"Hey," Cody said, running his fingers through his hair tiredly. "Could you do me a huge favour?"

"Sure," I said, curious because Cody never asked me to do anything for him. He tended to improvise and figure things out on his own. "What is it?"

"I dozed off and I knocked down all the papers your dad gave me. I'm having trouble sorting them and I was wondering if you could help."

"Oh, sure."

I got out of bed and Cody turned around. Following him, we went to his room and my eyes widened at the sight of the papers being scattered across the floor of his room. Glancing at him, I watched as he gave me a sheepish look.

"Sorry," he said. "I knocked out. My bad."

"You don't need to apologize," I said, walking over to the papers and crouching in front of them. "My dad gives you a lot of work. I should be saying sorry."

Cody didn't say anything to that, but he crouched down to the floor. Together we began to pick up the papers. Neither of us were sorting it because for now, we were just hoping to find all of them.

After a few minutes of picking up papers, Cody asked, "How old are you?"

The question caught me off guard, but I said, "Twenty. How about you?"

"I'm twenty, too."

Glancing at Cody, I saw that his eyes were on the papers he was picking up. Looking back at the papers I was picking up, I wondered where the question came from. Cody and I had never tried to get to know each other before.

"Are you in university?" Cody asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I go to the University of Herondale."

"What are you studying?"

"Engineering."

Cody paused and looked at me. His eyebrows rose and I realized he was impressed.

"Damn, you must be smart," he said, shooting me a small smile.

I blushed and looked down at the floor. Most people asked me why I was studying Engineering when I was going to end up working in a Business related job, but it was because I wanted a back up. Nothing was ever set in stone, so I decided do study something I enjoyed. Cody's compliment was flattering, but I didn't consider myself smart.

"What are you studying?" I asked, realizing I hadn't asked him.

"I'm actually not studying anything," Cody said, leaving me embarrassed because I had assumed. "My family can't afford it."

I didn't know what to say to that, but I felt incredibly bad. Although I wasn't physically blessed, I was financially. Moments like that made me feel sorry for people who struggled with money. I couldn't imagine a life where I had to limit what I liked to do because I couldn't afford it.